Quirky Happy Wizards Notes

I saved a few nuggets from Sunday's Wizards win for deployment later in the week, under the correct assumption that the next two games would yield two losses. So here. Try to smile.

1) The Hammerman brothers. Not only did the bring the "Crybaby" sign that made the big board 49 times, they also brought this Oleksiy Pecherov sign with real Ukrainian script. It's supposed to say "Get Buckets, Son," in real Ukrainian. Well, according to Google Translator.

"I hope it worked," said Adam, a huge Pech fan who also carried a Pech jersey. A few minutes later, Pecherov came over to sign autographs. I asked about the phrase.

"Make it Zomething, Son," Pecherov translated.

"Google Translator let me down," Adam noted. "Or he needs to brush up on his Ukrainian. Warmer weather getting to his head."

2) The sure sign of a bad year? When you show up at Bobblehead night, and get G-Wiz.

3) I finally gave Gilbert Arenas a stack of Chinese magazines with cover stories about him, bearing titles like "Gil's G0ne Wild." The magazines have been in my trunk since the Olympics. "Only problem is I don't speak Chinese," Gilbert noted. "So I've got to assume they're saying something good."

4) Reader question: "Mr. Steinberg, Do you happen to know the name of the song that plays at the Verizon Center when Caron Butler scores?"

Caron Butler answer: "It's Mystikal, The Man Right Chea," he said.

5) The in-game entertainment is still top rate. Like when they asked the Wizards their favorite childhood cartoons, and Caron said it was Duck Tales, because "Scrooge McDuck was living a large lifestyle."

6) There were also plenty of Cavs fans in the building, including Heather Stevens-Kittner, with her LeBron James Crown. It said "LeBron = LeRoi."

"He's The King," she told me. "What can you do?"

"We're being nice to her," said her Wizards-rooting neighbor. "Good thing she's not at a Redskins game."

7) Ran into Brendan Haywood in the hallway. He was predictably quotable. "No funny articles lately?" he asked me. "Guess there ain't been nothing to be funny about."

I asked him about the Cavs-Wizards and their different directions since last spring.

"It's all about injuries," he said. "You take away LeBron and Ilgauksas and I guarantee they'd have seven, eight wins right now. Hell, give them Ilgauskas and take away LeBron and they'll have seven, eight wins. Look for a season like this from Cleveland in 2010."